Kidder Township Considering Plans For 200 Homes

Kidder Township supervisors have until July 2 to approve preliminary plans that call for a 465-unit housing development to be built in the township and the borough of East Side.

If the supervisors fail to make a decision before July 2 on the section of the development that would be in the township, the plans for the controversial development will be automatically approved.

The supervisors held a public hearing on the proposed development in May at which several residents voiced concern that the development could affect the water table and cause sewage problems.

The proposed development would be located on an 89-acre tract of land near the Pocono Hershey Golf Course.

Jim Rothstein of Pocono Green, Inc., Reading, the project developer, said 51 acres of the development would be in Kidder Township. According to Rothstein, 200 units are planned for the township. The remaining 265 units would be constructed on 38 acres in East Side.

John Burke of Smith and Miller Associates, Kingston, project engineer, said some concerns voiced by residents have not yet been addressed since an environmental impact study has not been made. The developer has first been seeking approval of the preliminary plan.

Richard Beam, a resident of Lehigh Tannery, presented the supervisors with petitions at the hearing which contained 69 signatures of people protesting the development.

Beam said that the proposed outlet for treated sewage, known as Slaughterhouse Creek, runs into a pond on the property of Joseph Brady and has no outlet to the Lehigh River.

In April, the township's planning commission voted to recommend to the supervisors that the plan be approved if 26 points of concern that were not addressed in preliminary sketches for the development were taken care of.